Adam’s Top 10… Wrestlers of the Month – November 2018

November was an interesting month for British wrestling. Just this week, the Tuesday Night Graps brand from IPW was saved on a show that saw a slow-motion match between Kip Sabian and El Phantasmo, Drew Parker cutting the penis of an invisible man with a pair of scissors, and Kyle Fletcher coming back from the dead. Yeah, so that happened. Here in Scotland, we saw the ICW return of current WWE superstar Killian Dain, as well as the announcement that the inaugural ICW Zero-G Champion Noam Dar would be coming to the Hydro tomorrow night. Lovely stuff all around. For now though, it’s time to rank the top ten Wrestlers of the Month for the penultimate time this year!

Lad Chapman only had the one match this month, but it was an important milestone for him. At Caithness Pro Wrestling’s WAR! event, he defeated Lucha DS to finally capture the Undisputed Championship after a four year struggle to the top of the promotion. With a new faction known as Contagion now forming in CPW (consisting of Connor Rose, Corvyn Cameron, and Reaver), it looks as if the reign of The Highland Rogue will be a bumpy one right from the beginning.

9. Damien

Damien has had quite the year in 2018. Continuing his string of success, he kicked off November with a successful defence of his Undisputed WrestleZone Championship against both Aspen Faith and Kaden Garrick at the Friends of ANCHOR charity show, followed by another retention against Crusher Craib a week later in Huntly. This one saw The Revolutionary be disqualified, but a successful defence nevertheless. Two weeks later in Arbroath, Damien saw his way past Andy Wild and Jason Reed to cling on to the title, before making his long-awaited debut for ICW the next night. Here, he teamed with The Purge in a winning effort over Sugar Dunkerton and The Kings of Catch in a match that actually saw Damien get the winning pinfall over Suge. He certainly left his mark on the ICW faithful.

8. Anastasia

Making her Wrestlers of the Month debut here is “The Beauty From The Borders” Anastasia. She had two quite good matches from what I’ve heard in the middle of the month, the first being a loss to American indy star Veda Scott at Source Wrestling’s show in Lennoxtown, followed by an unsuccessful bout against Shax at Fierce Females’ Dark event. Although these were both losses, it’s phenomenal to see how far Anastasia has come since debuting in June. At this point, I’m finding it hard to believe she’s only been going for half a year.

7. Wolfgang

Wolfgang was a busy boy this month, wrestling two matches in one day on November 11th. He defeated Kenny Williams in an NXT UK showcase bout at WWE’s live event in Glasgow, before losing to BT Gunn later that night at ICW’s Fight Club taping in a very enjoyable encounter between the now-comrades in Bad Company. Matches from previously-taped episodes of NXT UK also aired, the first of which saw he and The Coffey Brothers (now known collectively as Gallus) defeating the team of Ashton Smith, Mark Andrews, and Flash Morgan Webster, while following week’s episode saw The Regulator defeat Ashton in singles competition. This past weekend’s tapings saw Wolfgang in action on both nights but for the sake of spoilers, I’ll let you search them out for yourselves.

6. Zach Dynamite

Both of Zach Dynamite’s reigns as WrestleZone Tri-Counties Champion have been superb. His second reign saw two successful defences in November, firstly against World of Sport star Lionheart at the charity show for Friends of ANCHOR (technically a win for Lionheart via disqualification due to the interference of Bradley Evans), while his most recent match saw a time limit draw with “Tenacious” Johnny Lions in Arbroath. Thus, he retained again. Inbetween these two championship bouts, Zach also put away Cysto in non-title action in Huntly. The more we keep Cysto away from championships, the better.

5. Joe Hendry

Despite being off the list for a bit of time, Joe Hendry remains in the number one position. He kickstarted his November with a victory over Ringkampf’s Timothy Thatcher to determine the new #1 contender for Joe Coffey’s Y Division Championship. From the highlights I’ve seen, it was one of Discovery’s best matches of the year. Continuing his trend of putting on excellent matches, The Prestigious One again collided with Martin Kirby at Defiant Wrestling’s Refuse to Lose iPPV in an I Quit Match. This was one of Joe’s best good guy performances I’ve ever seen as, despite Kirby targeting his leg the entire contest, Joe still made his best effort to fight through the pain. In the end, Martin came out victorious and continue the assault after the match. After losing to Andy Wild at ICW’s middle of the month Fight Club tapings, he and Leyton Buzzard were defeated by Jack Jester and Liam Thomson (known collectively as The Sinky Party, of course) at ICW’s debut show in Aberdeen. The night before this show in the Granite City, Joe debuted for British Wrestling Revolution at their Last Stand event, unsuccessfully challenging Reese Ryan for the VIP Championship. It wasn’t all bad news at BWR though, as Joe had a custom entrance based on The Greatest Showman. Lovely stuff indeed.

4. Lionheart

En-route to the Hydro, Lionheart began November with a return to WrestleZone as he defeated Zach Dynamite by disqualification, meaning The Foundation of The Future hung on to his Tri-Counties Championship. The following weekend, he was surprisingly defeated by NXT UK’s Ashton Smith at ICW, where he was then brutally assaulted and busted open by his Fear & Loathing XI opponent Jackie Polo. Two weeks after, Lionheart ventured to Paisley for Scottish Wrestling Alliance’s Battlezone event. After teaming with Mikey Whiplash in a loss to Dickie Divers and Scottish Heavyweight Champion Timm Wylie, Lionheart came out on top in the 2018 Battlezone Match to earn himself a future championship opportunity at Wylie’s championship. The next night in Aberdeen, it was a victory over ICW debutant Crusher Craib for Lionheart that evening, just a week prior to the biggest match of his career.

3. Alexander Darwin MacAllan

Since capturing the Source Championship this past July, Alexander Darwin MacAllan has been nothing short of a fighting champion. November saw him have three successful defences with the gold; against Scott McManus in Leithland, Grant McIvor in Lennoxtown, and Kieran Kelly in Govan. Elsewhere in the month, and fellow Titans member Rowan Frey made appearances for ICW and SWA. The latter saw them both enter the Battlezone Match as singles competitors, but the former saw them in a losing effort to The Kings of Catch. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I wouldn’t mind a rematch between those two units.

2. Jackie Polo

That there Just Justice had a lovely showing at ICW’s Fight Club tapings. It wasn’t a match though, it was his performance in an angle with Lionheart that earned him his spot here. Every part of Polo here was excellent, but most notably was when he said ‘you ain’t never beaten Jackie Polo once in your life’, switching from his country accent back to being Glaswegian. It was simply fantastic. After being eliminated from the SWA Battlezone, he competed on ICW’s debut show in Aberdeen with two successful defences of his ICW World Heavyweight Championship, firstly against ring crew member Ryan Riley and then against Andy Wild. It’s safe to say that since adopting the Just Justice mannerisms, Polo has risen up as a singles wrestler having spent several years as a tag team wrestler. Here’s hoping he remains at the top of the pack, no matter the outcome of his Fear & Loathing XI main event.

1. Andy Wild

Andy Wild kicked off the year by winning Discovery Wrestling’s Disco Derby Match and now, he’s won their Hotter Than Hell Edinburgh Invitational Tournament. After defeating Liam Thomson on the pre-show of 48 Months Later, he then pinned Chris Renfrew to earn himself a future chance at the Y Division Championship. A victory followed a week later over Joe Hendry, before he rounded off the month with two unsuccessful championship challenges. Firstly against Damien for the Undisputed WrestleZone Championship in Arbroath in a Triple Threat Match also involving Jason Reed, and then against Jackie Polo for the ICW World Heavyweight Championship at the company’s debut in Aberdeen. A wild month to say the least.

So, here we are. Almost at the end of the inaugural SWN Wrestlers of the Month series. Coming out of the November rankings, it is now confirmed that either Joe Hendry or Viper will be the overall Wrestler of the Year. The latter needs to secure the full ten points if she has any chance of overcoming The Prestigious One. Look out for the December rankings at the end of next month/the start of January to find out who my 2018 Wrestler of the Year is!